Bill Moyers talks to President and CEO of the Associated Press Tom Curley about a new press effort, led by him and others in the media business, to push for less secrecy in government. In a May 7th speech, Curley unveiled a plan for a "media advocacy center" to lobby for open government in Washington. "The government is pushing hard for secrecy," Curley said. "We must push back equally hard for openness."

Tom Curley became president and chief executive officer of The Associated Press on June 1, 2003. He is the 12th person to lead the AP since its founding in 1848. Under Curley's leadership, the AP is evolving from a Wire service to an interactive global news network geared to meet the content needs and marketplace demands of members and customers worldwide.

Curley has restructured senior AP management, created an international division to drive content and new business overseas, charted the development of technology to create a multimedia database for all AP content, and encouraged initiatives to celebrate exceptional and distinctive AP journalism.

Curley was previously president and publisher of USA TODAY, the nation's largest-selling daily newspaper. Since 1998 he was also senior vice president of the newspaper's owner, Gannett Co., Inc., publisher of 100 daily newspapers in the United States. USA TODAY circulation under Curley grew to more than 2.3 million copies a day.

Curley was the original news staffer on the project that led to the creation of USA TODAY. He was assigned in 1979 by then-Gannett Chairman Al Neuharth to study the feasibility of a national newspaper. He later worked in every department of the newspaper. In 1986, he became the newspaper's sixth president and in 1991 added the title of publisher.

At the age of 15, Curley began his journalism career covering high school basketball for his hometown Easton (Pa.) Express. He continued working for newspapers during college, and joined Gannett's Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union in 1972 as night city/suburban editor. He became director of information for Gannett in 1976 and began coordinating Gannett's Newspaper research projects, which produced more than 50,000 interviews on media use.

He became editor of Gannett's Norwich (Conn.) BULLETIN in 1982 and publisher of The COURIER-NEWS at Bridgewater, N.J., in 1983 before returning to USA Today in 1985.

Curley holds a political science degree from Philadelphia's La Salle University and a master's degree in business administration from Rochester Institute of Technology. He is a vice chairman of the boards at both schools.